Session 11
Game date May 28, 2011 Game notes 7 XP for last session. We probably have 3 session left. Game log * In the aftermath of the battle, the natives have been defeated in the grossest way possible. Many of us are wounded and others are nauseated by seeing the various creatures skeletonise the natives. Some of us have darts in our flesh. ** None of the natives had idols on them. ** Russel and Lynch have club wounds. Masters was clocked hard in the head. The Sorensons are unconscious but neither have blunt trauma wounds. * Luo looks after the wounded. He looks after those hit with clubs first and then the people hit like darts. Luo considers removing everyone's medallions but worries about being the target of the wrath of the owners since he's the only one all that suspicious of them. * Night continues and it's time to rest. Moore tries to calm people down and takes an evening watch. * Dream time... September 12th * Dawn of a new day. Most of the camp awakens. Masters, Lynch, and the Sorensons do not rise. (Basically Masters plus those who were darted.) ** Russel awakens to a sore shoulder and back and scattered bones around the camp. He gets an update on everything. His right arm is slightly disable. * Luo discusses with Moore about what to do. He suggests that we wait a day to see if the unconscious ones recover. Lynch and the Sorensons awaken at dusk. ** Lynch asks what's going on from Luo, who is looking on somewhat disapproving. Luo brings him up on having been poisoned and how strange things happened last night. Lynch asks if the natives were scared off, and Luo tells him "sort of." ** The Sorensons are up and chatting. Lynch makes a crack about how "the gods must love us." Luo asks about what the last thing Lynch remembered, and he says strapping on the flamethrower to get rid of bugs. * Moore talks to Luo about how George's gunshot wound is healing unusually fast. The wound looks like it healed two weeks in two days. He asks about what poultice was used, and Luo mentions that he doesn't think it's responsible. * Masters still hasn't woken up, so he may have brain damage. We'll have to drag him after us. Moore puts Lynch and Luo on brush clearing duty to help carry the burden. September 13th * In the morning, we break camp and put Masters into a sled and redistribute the contents to even the load. Thomas is also asked to help out with the sleds and brush clearing. * During the day, as we clear brush, Owen gets some time with Moore. Lynch tries to feel out Moore on the swarm of insects and snakes that saved us. * Time passes. After a few days, Masters does recover, but he's not at 100%. He has issues with dizziness and coordination. * Russel notices that there seems to be something following us for a couple of days in the branches. (The signs start to add up.) He lets the expeditionary crew and Moore know about that. * Neal Sorenson thinks he's got something's trail and wants to go off to hunt. Lynch goes off after him. Moore asks Russel if he wants to track down the thing that's following us. He demurs in favor of waiting for more backup after Neal gets back from hunting. ** After about half an hour of trailing Sorenson, Lynch hears some gunshots. Lynch comes to the clearing and sees a dozen pigs shot. Sorenson isn't there. The bodies are already attracting flies and other insects. ** The only tracks he can see leaving the area don't make a lot of sense. They are a series of more or less circular nickel-sized depressions in the ground. They really churn up the ground like a giant spider or centipede. Lynch follows. And he finds are dead monkey remnants and returns with most of a pig in tow. * Owen and Clayton go looking for the thing following us. Clayton sees a rustle in the branches and draws on it. Something scurries across the canopy from where Dr. Russel points. Owen shoots it and it drops. Clayton carefully goes over with his gun pointed at it and finds a creature with a hole in it breathing into the ground. ** It looks like like a 2-ft long beetle. In fact, it's the same beetle Dr. Russel clipped in the leg earlier. After looking at it for a bit, Dr. Russel shoots its body in the head. After reporting to Moore, Moore asks for him to get the corpse for Dr. Dworkin to examine. * Neal Sorenson returns with two giant anteaters in tow. Lynch asks about the pigs sort of, saying that he was worried his shot scared some away. Neal says that he saw some but they were small and he wanted more of a challenge. We eat the pig and take along the anteaters for later food. The rest of the day is uneventful. * Some time passes. The expedition is moving steadily east. A couple of weeks go by, and we make 30 miles roughly. Dr. Russel tosses and turns for a while but recovers. However, Luo and Curtis Anthony both get sick. * Morale is low due to all remaining doctors being sick as we come to a clearing with another village. This one has structures made of grass and minimal wood. There are some grain fields and a river adjacent to the village. The inhabitants are going out their business, weaving, gathering grain, etc. Matheson and Lynch are the forewords scouts who notice the place. ** At the center of the village, there is a large bonfire area and some table like structures but no overt idols. ** Lynch says to Matheson that these people look like the people that attacks us last and that they must've been following us for weeks. He wants to mount an attack, and Thomas wants to go back and tell the camp. ** Side note: George Sorenson is completely healed. Masters is not. The anteaters are eaten in time, but one of the Sorensons will go back and get new food. ** Lynch reports back to Moore, saying that he found the camp and thinks its the same people that jumped us. Moore doesn't think so since it's been weeks and miles. * Moore puts together a team with Dr. Russel and Faulkener (the linguist's asst.) to go make first contact. Joan asks to come along and is brought with us. We also bring one of the Sorensons with us. We head to the edge of the village and meet Matheson. * We don't know which medallions they have if any, so Dr. Russel keeps a pair hidden on him. We head in with Moore leading. Children are curious as women hide them. Quickly, the open areas of the village are cleared except for some older people in the center. * As we get closer to the village we see a large fire pit and a number of circles of stones around it. There is a flattened area near the middle. The elders of the village are fairly old, wrinkled and stooped, with various beads and feathers woven in their hair. One has a staff and walks forward. He says haltingly, "Hello," and then proceeds in an unfamiliar tribal language. However, it's close to a lot of other languages in the area and we can communicate. * They are the Kalapalo, and they welcome us to their village. They know of the Fawcetts who came her a long time ago. Joan jumps into the conversation at that point to ask how long they were there and how they were. He says they were there four days and then moved east. After they left, they saw fire smoke to the east a week later and then nothing. He says after asked if they were well that one of the younger seemed slow. It was still the three of them. * The chief offers to allow us to stay in the village square to rest and will provide food if our warriors help them hunt. Matheson, Faulkener, and Fischer go back and bring in the rest of the people to camp in the village. * As we return to the village, some of the people overcome their shyness. Moore is generous with the native gifts, especially the costume jewelry. They don't seem to worship either of the two main gods. Most of their goods are wooden, and there don't seem to be a lot of religious symbols around the village. Their religions is fairly animistic with lots of spiritual lore of the animals and plants of the jungle. The warriors find hunting spiritual. There's a goddess of the harvest, a god of the weather, a god of jungle might, etc. All honored in various ways with feats, dancing, etc. ** They say that most tribes have their own gods for protection. They do know of a few tribes nearby worship Zhathog. They know of the Suya, who are very warlike, and the Maxuvy, who are farmers and traders. The Suya are raiders who take slaves. They live several weeks north. ** They have not seen many people who wear the pink stone. The Guarayos live nearby. ** To the east, they say that some tribes may want to fight and some may not. The Kuhikuga like to fight but are good people. Further east are the Kuikuro who like to take slaves and eat people and are east and a bit south of here. * Luo asks for help in asking about medicinal herbs. Most of their info is identical to what he learned before, but there's some new info. With the expedition here, there seems to be an effort to get more fish. They drip some milky sap from a tree into a slow part of the river and a few minutes later, fish start floating up in the river and are gathered into baskets to bring back to camp. The villagers say that the fish are asleep and the ones that are not eaten will awaken. They also use it for sick people but not for hunting. * We show them the notes on the creatures we've seen, and they have never seen them and are disturbed by them. * We ask about tribes that use sleeping poison and how to wake people. They say there are several ways to put people to sleep, and it's difficult to tell which is used. * The village prepares food for a large number of people as they roast fish. A few dozen warriors come in with not a huge selection of game. Some turtles, small birds, a sting ray, etc. The meal is a bit paltry, but there's singing and dancing. Moore passes out a bottle of good liquor. The mood is good and the night passes. September 29th * Morning dawns on the village, and it's the beginning of Spring. Well fed and rested, Moore is set to head east to continue to follow the Fawcetts. * Luo thinks to ask about the lost city. They have legends of a great stone village where the people were divided and fought each other for many generations. * We head into the jungle. A few days pass. Matheson is with George Sorenson breaking the trail. They come to a river and find Evelyn Grey. She is alive but pale, sweating, and dirty. She seems delirious with few lucid moments, but her eyes lock on Thomas and she whispers for him to kill her. * George asks if Thomas thinks this is weird. Thomas agrees and asks if we should bring her back to camp. George says that he should stay while Thomas goes back to tell Moore. Thomas convinces him to go back instead. * Back at camp, George reappears and has a private conversation with Moore. He approaches Dr. Russel and breaks the news (and then informs him she's alive). Dr. Russel suggests bringing a doctor, and Moore suggests Luo since Curtis Anthony is under the weather. He leaves some instructions for Neal and Owen to keep the camp safe. * While Matheson waits, Evey slides in and out of lucidity and mutters in strange languages. She babbles about some kind of monster and mentions the names of the others taken with her. Her skin is ripping and flexing weirdly. She says she hurts and "they're inside me." After about an hour of watching her writhing in pain, Moore arrives with Luo, Dr. Russel, and George Sorenson. * Whatever is in her is writhing around in more than just her belly. It's in her torso and neck too. Dr. Russel asks if Luo can get them out before they kill her. Luo can hear with his stethoscope a regular rhythm and and irregular one -- the sounds are kind of wet & squelching. * Luo injects her with something to knock her out, and there's a wet tearing sound. The lower abdomen and upper thorax writhing intensely and start to rip open. There is some blood but not much. Evey herself has gone limp. A writhing pinkish wet mass emerges from both new cavities. ** Luo freaks out and is driven to destroy these things in her body before they emerge. ** From the upper torso comes a fairly blunt, rough, and knobby object. ** From the abdomen comes a blunt, shiny, scaly, and mottled object. ** As Luo freaks and punches the throat creature, it spreads open revealing a white underside and a sharp circular hole with sharp edgy bits. It catches and envelops his fist. ** As the creature that grabs Luo is exposed, he sees the rough, knobby limbs wrapped around his arm going down to a shiny, scaly body with a couple of thin appendages coming off the back and an articulated, hard armored tail. ** Emerging from her pelvis area is something much like an anemone with twiggling tentacles with a couple of large forearms behind this, a scaled body, and six legs crawling from her swiftly cooling flesh. ** Russel takes a shot at the lower creature and misses. Evey's body jerks as he and George miss and hit her body. George and Russel both take shots again on the next round and miss as the creature fully emerges from Evey's body. ** Matheson lunges at the creature on Luo's body. Suddenly, every muscle in Luo's body seizes up and his vision goes white. Luo twitches and flails and flings his creature into the river as Luo falls the the ground and spasms. The other creature jumps on top of Luo, raises its two enormous forearms and an incredibly loud, percussive noise deafens all of us as there's a bright flash of light. ** The flash of light and noise disorients us. Russel fires into the river at the creature that jumped in and misses again. Matheson flails at the creature and there's another gunshot sound. Matheson feels some resistance to his machete and a bit of spray from it. ** Next round our vision has recovered. There's a spray of orangey liquid on Thomas' face and around the area. The lower half of a lizard leg is lying on the ground twitching. * Russel sees the trail of orange blood leading off into the woods and follows. George stays to keep an eye on the one in the river. After 10 minutes, Luo comes to but is babbling and has very poor motor control. He has wet himself, is disoriented, and his eyes will not focus. It takes him another 30 minutes to regain full control of his faculties. His hand looks burned in three lines along the back of his arm and two on his fingers and two on his wrist on the other side. * Meanwhile Russel is tracking the creature's blood and feels something drip on his shoulder. He sees the spread of orange just as its tail whips into the tree next to him. (The creature rolled a matched failure.) The tail is a spiny appendage with barbs. It connects to a mottled, brownish body with (now) five appendage. Its head is made of a large number of short, thick, squiggling tentacles. My shot misses its body and slices through a few of the tentacles and send it recoiling into the canopy in a panic, leaving bits of its tail behind. Russel gets off another shot and gets a rain of orange ichor and tentacle bits as the body bounces down off of his shoulder and side. He can smell a slight burned fruity smell. * Back at the group, they hear a couple of gunshots, and Russel comes back 20 minutes later with the creature and washes up. He catches up on Luo's recovery and Moore decides to have some camp crew come and bury her. ** Luo's hand is still numb and tingly. When his hand was in the creature, his body felt like it was plunged into icy water without the cold -- tingly, numbing, and painful. ** Dr. Russel tells Joan about Evey's body being found and how the bodies have been found fresh along our trail and violently killed. He does not reveal the full detail about her having been alive at the time or the creatures emerging from the bodies. * We bring back Evey's body to the camp (!!) and bury her there. A solemn service is held. Moore presides. He discloses to the camp that we had through we had said goodbye to our missing but that we have finally recovered the last and put her to her deserved rest. He gives a booster speech about us growing close to our destination and about us coming close to the end of our search. He praises our teamwork and strength in the face of adversity. * A few days pass with little happening of great event. Anthony recovers. The party sees a good spot to bed down for the evening near a stream. By the time the group reaches the area the scouts found, there is a group of natives with spears. They are short (~5'4"), carrying longspears. They have loincloths with decorations and necklaces of bone and feather and green talismans. There are ten of them. * Moore, Russel, Joan, the linguist's asst., and Sorenson come forward to greet them. * They greet us in English. They are the Kamayura and have been sent to aid us in our journey to find Fawcett. They have followed our journey and wish to aid us on our quest. Owen (who isn't in the greeting party) catches something in a language he shouldn't understand including the words Zhathog, sent, protect, guide. * Fawcett passed through their village many years ago. They heard the rumors that Moore was seeking him and their elders felt it their duty to aid us. Moore says that it's quite a generous offer but he doesn't know their people. We are not in a position to refuse any help really but have done well enough on our own and don't wish to inconvenience their people in any way. * They consider it an honor to repay the debt owed to the great colonel. Moore pulls back to discuss with his "tribe." Moore would like the assistance, especially more fighters to defend us. ** Luo notices that some of their bone decorations are human bones -- fingers, teeth. ** After some discussion, we decide to accept their help since they have the advantage of us and would rather have them as allies than enemies. * Moore mentions that he'd like to thank their elders if he can but the tribesmen demur on us visiting their village. (Russel shares his concerns about possible cannibalism with Moore but agrees that it's unlikely that they're trying to trick us.) * We make camp that night. Owen talks with some of the guides who brought a bag full of talismans to distribute to all the people in the camp. Owen agrees to do with (even without the knowledge of the people receiving them). Owen asks if Colonel Fawcett is Zhathog. His service is completed, and he is with Zhathog. There are exactly 17 talismans; that's two short. * In the morning Lynch is gone after sneaking around planting statues on people, which nobody knows just yet. (Owen is retired from the game for too many Special track failures.) Category:Session Logs